Lawrence of Arabia ending explained

What happens

Lawrence helps the Arabs take Damascus, but the tribes can't hold together and Britain and France have their own plans. He is quietly sent home, a spent legend. The film's opening death is the end of his story.

The last image

Lawrence's staff car drives off through the dust, passing a motorcyclist, the ordinary world he can no longer properly rejoin.

What it says

The ending shows that Lawrence's will never set the real limits; empire and tribal rivalry did. Having made him a legend, the film lets him fade, so the man is lost behind the myth, which is its point.